Extra smoke flavor for pellet smoker

[JWFokker]

Do you soak the chips first, and/or do you ignite them with a torch or do you just let the heat do its thing? Just got my tube today and I've got some chips. Thinking of doing ribs tomorrow.

I don't soak chips. Serves no practical purpose. I use a propane torch to light them or a starter cube if I'm out of propane, same as with pellets.

 

[JWFokker]

Anybody that thinks pellets are not real wood needs to study some, the smoke they produce is real smoke from real wood, the thing is they burn clean and you dont get much smoldering smoke as a stick burner not being ran clean or a charcoal with chunks,

The hotter the fire, the more degradation of flavorful chemical compounds. The smoke flavor comes from combustion byproducts. You can get wood to burn so hot that little to no smoke is produced, but that's not useful if you actually want to smoke meat. This is why pellet burners don't make much smoke above 250F and practically nothing at 400F. Too hot, too clean = no flavor.

And I dispute that pellets are equivalent to other wood fuel like chunks and chips. They do not burn the same for the simple reason that they have turned the wood into dust and compressed it, like a charcoal briquette. Lump and briquettes don't burn the same. Pellets don't either, and this impacts flavor.